Barcelona, capital city of Catalonia, due to its constant growth has become one of the biggest economic centres in Europe, an attracting place for business. Thanks to its privileged location on the edge of Mediterranean Sea, together with the innovation and the technologic development that are part of the city’s identity, in 2008 it has been choosen as the headquarter of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean and, in the same year, it was the fourth favourite city for business after London, Paris and Frankfurt (European Cities Monitor by Cushman & Wakefield, September 2008). It was also elected as the first city in quality of living for employees, according to the same ECM for 2010, and the second world city in the organisation of international meetings (International Congress & Convention Assoc.).
Barcelona is doubtless a young city, for its entrepreneurial impulse towards the future.
Money invested in this city will generate high levels of satisfaction, for a wide number of reliable reasons. These are ten of them, as described by the Barcelona City Council official website:
1. A Privileged Location
Barcelona is the gateway to southern Europe, the centre of an emerging economic Euroregion, capital of the Mediterranean area, a bridge to North Africa and a linking platform to Latin America.
2. Accessible and Connected to Other Countries
With a new intercontinental airport, a seaport in expansion (the leading port in the Mediterranean) and overland connections by rail and the network of international motorways.
3. Motor of a Large, Dynamic and Diverse Economic Area
With a long industrial tradition and a strong entrepreneurial fabric, Barcelona is committed to a knowledge-intensive economy and activities, especially advanced services and new economic activities.
4. Successful Foreign Investment
Catalonia receives approximately 25% of annual foreign investment in Spain. The Barcelona area concentrates more than 3300 of the foreign companies established in Catalonia – almost 90%.
5. Big Future Projects
Barcelona is currently undergoing the biggest transformation in its history with important public investment and major opportunities for private initiative.
6. National and International Human Capital
Barcelona has the best European business schools and a first-rate international selection of universities, which facilitates the creation and attraction of talent.
7. Extensive Real Estate Supply
Barcelona has a wide range of offices, commercial premises and industrial buildings available at very competitive prices and the highest quality standards. The city attracts every day many people coming from different places for its attributes.
Even it experienced, as the rest of Europe, the big real estate crisis in 2007, when prices went down a 40% approx., the city found a way to react. With its strong economic activity, Barcelona made the volume of real estate investments grow up in centric areas, where the demand for property for rent or sale is bigger, especially from students, research workers and businessmen that need to live in this part of the city. Today the number of real estate trades in centric areas is growing again, and every day Barcelona’s attractiveness for foreign investors turns higher. The possibility to acquire properties at good prices, in comparison with other important European cities, is realistic.
8. Public-Private Cooperation
The Barcelona model, which is increasingly recognized internationally, has developed thanks to the fact that public and private actors are perfectly in tune with one another.
9. Excellent Quality of Life
A place to work and a place to live, a city that, as well as a pleasant climate with sun and sand all year round, has a wonderful selection of cultural and commercial options, a modern health care system accessible by all, safe and efficient public transport, a Mediterranean lifestyle and an urban environment with its own special character.
10. Recognized Worldwide Prestige
Different independent international studies and comparisons choose Barcelona.
